Report shows increase in home prices not real but just fewer distressed sales

saint-louis-real-estate-dennis-normanA report was just published by RadarLogic which said that, even though home prices in the 25 cities covered by their RPX composite index appeared to have increased in the past year, that this was the result of a large decline in the number of distressed sales at bargain prices and not an increase in home prices.  The RPX report, which covered June 2011 through June 2012, said home prices were pretty well flat during this period if you take out distressed sales.  This prompted me to take a look at the St Louis housing market to see how home prices did here during the same period, both with, and without, distressed sales included and the results were interesting….First, home prices from June 2011 through June 2012 with distressed sales included:

st-louis-home-prices-with-distressed-sales

As you can see in the chart above, St Louis home prices (median) appear to have increased over 5 percent during the one-year period, going from $125,000 in June 2011 to $132,000 in June 2012.  Now, let’s look at home prices, without distressed sales included:
st-louis-home-prices-without-distressed-sales

Wow, the chart above shows that, without distressed sales included, St Louis home prices appear to have been pretty much flat in the past year, just as the Radarlogic report found for it’s 25 city composite.  On a positive note, after what we have been through the past few years, flat prices aren’t so bad, at least they are not declining!

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